Fleas, new house, seriously?!

Alright bees, I’m seriously exhausted, my dog managed to get fleas while at the dogsitter while we were on vacation, she had scabs and rashes and was MISERABLE, so I was regularly dipping her, gave her Capstar, and put a new preventative on her, sent her off to my parents while we moved to our new house and she was looking good — belly was healing up, wasn’t scratching, then last night I notice she’s scratching, I mean DIGGING, and I look at her belly, and they’re back — red patches, scabs, bites, bumps, and I saw 2!! These things are RELENTLESS!!!! Granted, I’ve not seen them on US or furniture, and I’ve not noticed any bites on myself and neither has FI, but I’m sure with all the scratching she’s doing, they’ve gotta be in our BRAND NEW HOUSE! Seriously. So, here’s the scoop. House is around 2800sq ft or so, upstairs is all hardwoods and travertine tiles, downstairs is carpet (where she stays during the day) — we’ve decided to try a flea bomb. Do you have any suggestions for doing so properly? Like, is it going to ruin our brand new furniture? Do I have to wash all of my clothes in the closet now? Is my new couch going to be toxic and destroyed? What do you recommend we cover? Is it going to ruin my GORGEOUS hardwood floors? I’m freakin’. HELP!!!!!!

@beachchic105: We do flea bombs twice a year. We usually put the cats out in the garage (detached from the house) and set them up with their food, water, litter box, etc along with the bunny and his cage. And then we’ll take the puppy out swimming or go into the city and take her with us. We usually leave for about 6 or 7 hours which is probably a bit excessive, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

We make sure the TVs are covered up with a sheet and that our bed sheets and pillows for the living room are set to be thrown into the wash as soon as we get home.

Also, make SURE your smoke detectors are off! We forgot to take the batteries out once and about 2 minutes into the bomb going off we heard our alarm as we were leaving.

As SOON as you get home throw the sheets and such in the washer (I also wash our comforter) and anything else that you come in contact with. As for the hardwood floors, there’ll be residue but it will mop right up. Just make sure your pets don’t go into the room until you’ve mopped it REALLY well. It won’t hurt the wood though.

As upkeep between flea bombs, I make a salt and baking soda mixture to sprinkle over furniture and carpets. Leave it down for about 2 hours, and then vaccuum up. The mixture will suffocate the fleas and kill them, and it’s much easier (and cheaper) than setting off a bomb more than once or twice a year. I do the mixture sprinkle around the house about once a month. We haven’t had fleas since we’ve been doing the bombs and the baking soda sprinkling. 🙂

So sorry that your furbaby is going through this – sounds terrible! I have never heard of flea bombs but they sound like a good idea based on @PacificMrs:‘s feedback. Can I ask if you do the flea bombs even if there are no fleas present? I’m thinking maybe we should too!

@PacificMrs: It doesn’t damage your furniture though, right? I ask because we literally bought everything new for this house and I’m worried it’s all going to get ruined from it. I don’t think they’re SO bad seeing as how I can only see them on her not on us or in the house like I know most people complain about seeing.. but it’s enough to know we have a problem and need to correct. I had planned to take all of the bedding to a laundromat and washing it all there, but if it will be ok to do it at home, I would prefer to do that. I also worry about it ruining out hardwood floors, but maybe that’s me being paranoid. Do they help your problem?? My main concern is HER, obviously, and her feeling better and not being miserable, but I also don’t want our house to be compromised, did you unplug your refridgerator or anything like that? I know we have to turn off the ac/heat unit and stuff, but I want to make sure we’re being safe about this so we don’t come home to a home burnt to the ground LOL

Do you know that dawn dish detergent works better than flea dip? It suffocates the eggs so they cannot hatch. True story. I called my vet once because my dog was infested. I dipped her to no avail. The vet told me to try dawn. I swear it killed them and they never returned. It was also much less harsh on her skin. So now if I see one of my dogs with fleas iwash them with dawn, regular original dawn.

@MrsPanda99: They’re just so bad this year here with the heat and everything, we’ve never had a problem with our pet having them until this year and it seems like we didn’t nip the problem when we took her out before the move, maybe they stuck around and we transferred them to the house somehow and she’s gotten them again. 🙁 I would think using them as a preventative method would be a good idea. I’ve seen alot of complaints around the net about them this year and my vet said they’re outrageous this summer. Sucks for the pups/cats involved too, poor things just sit and scratch and look at you like “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!” ha

@Glenda_the_good_witch: I had actually considered that, to be honest, the flea baths that I used didn’t do much and I felt bad for having to use them on her, I tried to follow them up with oatmeal baths so that it was helpful on her skin, I know having those raw patches and me soaping her up isn’t the most comfortable thing for her. I may try that tomorrow. I plan on taking her out while we bomb and giving her a bath while we’re gone along with another Capstar treatment, so maybe when I give her a bath I will use Dawn. If it’s easier on her skin than the flea shampoos, I would be curious to give it a try. I just want her happy again!!

Fleas and ticks are bad this year. I myself just got over a staph infection from a nasty tick bite. Thankfully it wasn’t lymes disease. An oatmeal bath would probably be very soothing to her skin. Poor baby…:(.

I just called my sis who has used flea bombs before. She said that it didn’t ruin her furniture. She had carpet though and not hardwood floors. But she said pretty much the same thing as the first person who responded.

@beachchic105: I know ticks have been awful in my area this summer, so fleas have probably been the same. Ugh! Glad I have a white dog – makes it easier to spot any creepy-crawlies before they latch on. We also use Frontline every month, which we get from the vet – much safer and more effective than anything you can buy at a drug store. I second the PP’s comment about diatomaceous earth – I believe you can use it on carpet as well as outdoors, it’s sold at pool supply companies. Also, I know you’re worried about your furniture getting damaged, but you actually want the flea bomb chemicals getting on the upholstery – fleas can live in there, too (like bedbugs!). If it were me, I’d probably hire an exterminator to do the bombing/spraying, though….I’ve heard too many stories of drug store flea baths/sprays/bombs going wrong and sickening people or pets. Especially since it’s your new house, a thorough exterminator visit is probably a good investment as he or she can check for all sorts of pests and head off any problems. Good luck!

@Ibblet: my dog hasn’t been in the closet much, but would they be on any of the items hanging up, or would it be safe to not wash all of that? We’ve been holding off on doing the laundry this week so we can do it once we bomb and get everything clean. Appreciate the tips!!

@loveandapitbull: I typically use Frontline on her, but I switched per my vets recommendation. The capstar is just a method of killing whats live on her right now and for up to 24 hours after. We switched to Advantage, I believe? My vet said she had too many complaints about Frontline and didnt carry it any longer. But I’d imagine if she’s been living with these or we have an infestation of some kind, it’s probably not going to help, they’ll probably keep coming back to her for more until we solve the issue in the house. Which is a shame. I hear ya on the drug store items sickening dogs and people, it’s a concern of mine too, but I’ve got to get her relief, and alot of people seem to have decent results. The exterminator is supposed to come in a week or so, he was pretty booked and the only one recommended in our new town, so I’m kinda stuck right now. 🙂

@Ibblet: I came here to also suggest treating your lawn. Even if they’re not in the house anymore, as soon as your dog goes outside, he can get re-infested. I LOVE Diatomaceous Earth (make sure you get “food grade”), although I don’t personally have experience with using it on lawns. I did use it inside of the house when my family moved to Texas and we found that our new house was infested with roaches– killed those suckers good and fast!

If you don’t want to fleabomb your house yet, you can try a combo of DE and vacuuming, washing, and mopping to see if that helps with the fleas. At one point, my cats had a huge problem with fleas, and that’s what I did. Anywhere the cat could possibly sit, there were probably eggs. Wash any and all removable bedding, vacuum anything else you can think of. Spread DE where the dog can’t get to, or even put the dog in another room (just for the sake of not being disturbed in the process) and sprinkle it everywhere before vacuuming.

I also used Revolution. It worked WONDERS! Everyone will have different levels of success with various medicines, but it seems to be stronger than the medicine you can buy in the store.

@beachchic105: AS long as they have stayed in there it should be fine…but if you took them out layed them on the bed then hug them back up I would wash.

You wont ever get rid of the problem untill you kill all the eggs. Make sure your Bomb kills all stages of flea life. Also advantage is amazing!!

We don’t use bombs cause they make me sick we just use the foam spray and vaccum everything. but After the bomb I would flip over your cushions and vaccum under them…if your animal sleeps on the bed strip your bed first so the bomb gets on the mattress they can crawl up in there and survive.

Harder than roaches to get rid of :/

Oh and..

The red patches means she might have an allergy to the fleas….you would be amazed at what childrens benidryll can do to help that. Call your vet and ask about doseage